Method of and apparatus for packaging food products



Dec. 22, 1959 A J, HOHL 2,917,880

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PACKAGING FOOD PRODUCTS Filed April 24, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jal Il l

JOHN HoHL Dec. 22, 1959 J. HoHL 2,917,880

METHOD oF AND APPARATUS Fox? PACKAGING FooD PRODUCTS Filed April 24, '1.957 3 Sheei'Qs-Sheet 2 J/TIENTOR rJoHN HoHL l BY J. HOHL 2,917,880 METHOD OF ND APPARATUS FOR PACKAGING FOOD PRODUCTS Filed April 24, 1957` Dec. 22, 19759 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Y INVENTOR rIoHN HOHL 'I Z5-rid" 8' BY United States Patent() John Hohl, Toledo, Ohio, assig-nor to Owens-Illinois GlassCompany, a corporation of Ohio Application April 24, 1957, Serial No. 654,921

4 claims. (cl. spa-112) The present invention relates to improvements in packaging food products and more particularly is a novel and effective method of an apparatus for excluding oxygen from the packed product and substituting therefor an intert gas such as nitrogen.

In the packaging of certain food products, it is essential to satisfactory preservation that atmospheric air or oxygen be excluded from the jar or such container for the products. With some such products deterioration in the presence of oxygen takes place quite rapidly. 'I'hese are well-known facts.

An important object of my invention is the provision of a novel method and apparatus for insuring that the entire head space and the interior of the closure cap, at the time of placement upon its jar, will contain no oxygen and instead be filled to overliowing with nitrogen, or some other suitable inert gas.

A further object of my invention is the provision of Vmeans for introducing an inert gas into a closure cap substantially at the time it is picked off of the discharge end of a cap chute by and partially telescoped over the neck of a jar. Thus as the gas-filled closure cap drops onto the jar it effectively traps a substantial volume of gas and any excess flows outwardly over the container neck to the atmosphere, insuring complete filling of theentire head space above the packed product with the inert gas.

Other objects will be in part apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view indicating schematically the successive steps and apparatus involved in packaging food products wherein my invention is utilized.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view showing my invention built into a conventional closure cap delivery chute.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional elevational view, on an enlarged scale, showing the closure cap chute provided with gas injecting means and a gas filled closure cap about to telescope over and enclose the neck of a jar.

Fig. l4 is a top plan view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary top plan view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 3 with the closure cap chute cover removed.

Fig. 6 is an end elevational view taken substantially along the line 6 6 of Fig. 3 omitting the chains and belts shown in Fig. 3, for the sake of clarity.

Fig. 7 is a transverse sectional view on an enlarged scale taken along the line 7--7 of Fig. 2.

"Figf 8 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view taken substantially along the line 8-8 of Fig. 4.

I am aware of efforts by others to accomplish the results of my invention, one example being that revealed in C. L. Day et al. Patent No. 2,763,107 issued September 18, 1956, but in that patent there is no assurance whatsoever that gas introduced into the closure caps will not be entirely displaced by atmospheric air before they 2 arrive at the bottom end of the cap chute. Neither is there any certainty that the head space of the container will not contain a substantial amount of oxygen.

In Fig. l, I have illustrated schematically the several steps and apparatus involved in the packaging of food products wherein my invention has been incorporated. As has been pointed out previously, complete removal of oxygen and absence of same from jars or the like containers at the time they are being filled and hermetically sealed, is essential to the preservation of certain kinds of foods and maintenance of color, quality and flavor. In the -disclosure in Fig. 1, thejar I first is vacuumized by a vacuum head 15, then is filled with an inert gas such for example as nitrogen by means of a gas injector 16. Thereafter, and while the jar is filled with the inert gas the product to be packagedV is introduced thereinto through a funnel guide 17 or the like device. I provide a cushioned canopy 18 (Figs. 3 and V8) for closing the jar and retarding any loss or dilution of the introduced nitrogen, so that upon completion of placement of the the product in the jar, the usual head-space above the product fill line, contains only inert gas, to the total exclusion of oxygen. Thus the filled jar arrives at a closure cap applying zone devoid of anyentrapped oxygen. In this zone, a closure cap, also filled with an inert gas, is dropped or otherwise positioned over the jar neck and then secured thereto. Thus there is positive assurance that the jar head-space and interior of vthe closure cap will be purged of all oxygen at the time of final sealing, all with the beneficial and essential results explained heretofore.

Filled jars J arrive in succession at the discharge end of an inclined closure cap chute 19 and up to this point are effectively closed to prevent loss of inert gas from the head-space, by means of the previously mentioned canopy 18. This canopy may well be a foam rubber pad 20 having a facing sheet 21 of rubber or such material on its lower side for sliding contact with the rim. of the jar neck. This sheet 21 may also be lubricated on its lower surface to insure easy, relatively unimpeded advance of the jars in normal upright positions, with the conveyor 22, which is mounted upon a frame 23.

Closure caps 24, Shown for the purpose of illustration as skirted screw-threaded caps dow by gravity and in succession down the chute 19 which is a covered trough having a bottom 25, a pair of side Walls 26 and a removable cover 27. In general, this chute and the cap holding and releasing devices vare standard apparatus obtainable on the open market. The closure caps have their open sides facing generally downward and the foremost cap 24 in the chute (Figs. 3 and 8) occupies a slightly inclined position with a portion protruding beyond the end of the chute into the path of travel of the jar neck. As the jar moves beneath the cap chute, hte neck N engages the protruding portion of said cap and pulls it out of the chute. Immediately the cap 24 drops by gravity and encloses the upper end of the jar neck (Fig. 8) and thereupon cap aliixing means including a rapidly moving belt 28 rotates and secures the cap to the jar, This belt is trained over a pulley 29 which is carried by a shaft 30, the latter supporting a sprocket 31. A sprocket chain 32. is trained over said sprocket 31 and a second driving sprocket 33. i This second or driving sprocket 33 is car- ,ried by one of a pair of vertical shafts 34 which support pulleys 35 and over these pulleys 35 pairs of stabilizing belts 36 are trained. These operate to hold the jars against rotation about their axes.

Removal of oxygen from the closure caps, as they leave the cap chute and are about to drop and telescope over the jar necks, is effected by providing a plurality of ports 37 in the floor or bottom 25 of the chute in proximity to its discharge end. These ports open into la distributor chamber 38 which is of a width substantially the same as that of the chute. At the forward end of this chamber 38 it ,is `provided zwith atransverseslotflike discharge port .39 ofaboutthe .width Qrthechute proper.

A Supply Pipe 40 for nitrogen Vor, the like inertgas is .connected to thedistributorchamber 33.1 At theslotted .end of thischamber, Ais a 4wall section 41r of small area lyingin a substantially horizontal plane1with itsforward ,edgeterminating so thabthe port 3,9, one wallsofkwhich it forms, faces bothppwardly and forwardly. Thus emitted gas will be directed both upwardly and forwardly' into the closure ,caps 24 and effectively displace and replace oxygen therein. The oor ory bottom 25 of the chute .(Figs. 3 and 5 is cut away centrally near the dis'- charge end to provide a pair of transversely spacedk cap supporting rails 42. This structure permits free Yand rapid access of the gas to the cap interior, as is apparent byreference to Figs. 3 and 8. In order to insure against objectionable.disturbance of thegas in the head-space ofthe jar and provide for Vmaximum concentration of `gas in the closure cap 24, I extend the facing sheet 21 of the canopy 18 to form aitongue-like cover 43 (Figs. 3 and 5). This cover 43 lies in a horizontal position and maintains the ljar neck lopening .substantially closed up to a split second priorto actual dropping of the closure cap into place. This tongue-like cover 43 isllexible and at its base may be spaced from the lower side of the chamber wall section 41 byimeans o-f a pad 44 of foam rubber.

VAs previously explained, the jars are vacuumized, gasfilled and then the product to be packed is placed there- -in. Such procedure obviously removes some of the -inert gas, but insures that any space not occupied by the product itself will b e gas-filled and that such gas will alsoffll'the'customaryheadspace above the packed product. The canopy (Figs. 2 and 3) retards any loss of gas from the jars. Thus when ajar reaches the closure cap receiving position, it still is effectively closed by the tongue-like cover 43. yThe closure cap 24 while awaiting the arrival of a jar is exposed to the gassing operation and such continues for a period of time during the actual deposition of the closure cap 24 onto the jar (Fig. 8) so that the cap is completely gas-lled. As the cap drops over the jar neck, any excess gas in such cap escapes porting open, product-filled jars in normal upright positions with a head-space filled with an inert gas, means for moving vthe conveyor continuously to thereby transport the jars one at a time through a closure cap receiving zone and a closureaxing zone, closure cap feeding means having a delivery end in said receiving zone, means for transferring skirted closure caps from the feeding means to positions infwhich they are telescoped over a part of the jars, means common to allV jars moving to the cap feeding-means for temporarily'closing the jars until initiation -of the closure cap telescoping step means for introducingan inertgas into -the closures during ini- ;tiation of the telescoping-operation and-meansforf axenclosing thepluralityy ofports, said oor forming one wall of the distributing chamber and together with another wall thereof providing an upwardly and forwardly' facing slot-like outlet for the inert gas, means for sup-- plying gas to said chamber, a cover projecting horizontal ly forwardimmediately below thev gas outlet to overlie .and-nonnally close atleast a major partof the open end Vof a container being moved therebeneath, lmeans releas-v ably supporting a closure cap in an inclined position withv its open side facing and immediately above the gas outlety and cover and with a portion of such cap positioned to be engaged by the open end of a moving jar and thereby removedfrom kthe c ap chute whereby to effect telescoping; of the closure cap over said open end while gas is being, introduced into Asaid cap and means for securing the: closure cap'to the-jar and entrappinginertrgas in the:

head-space of the latter.

3. Apparatusas defined in claim 2, said cover'being tongue-like and formedof exible material and ,capable of vertical movement relative to the conveyor.

4. In apparatus for closing containers for foodproducts and the like comprising means for conveying open Yproduct-filled containers in normal upright positions in succession and by continuous movement through closure cap receiving andraixing zones, the containers each having a head-space'substantially lled with an inert'gas, means for telescoping a skirted closure cap over the open end of each container'while in the receiving zone, means for introducing an inert gas into the closure cap to purge .it of oxygen during atleast the initial stages of telescoping the cap over said'open end of the container, means overlying a portion of the path of travel of the containers for temporarily closing the open end of each until initiation of the cap telescoping step to thereby confine gas'in the ,head-space, Ameans for, aixing each closure cap to its container to hermetically seal and entrapv gas in the head-space of the container, the inert gas introducing means comprising anfin'clined chute having a 'floor portion Aprovided near its lower end with a plurality of apertures, a gas distributor chamber communicating with and common to all of said apertures and extending along and beneath a portion of said chute, said chamber having a transverse -lhorizontal discharge port for directing gas forwardly and upwardly into the closure caps, there being a flexible forwardly extending tongue-like cover positioned to overlie and at least in part close the containers during initial telescoping of the caps thereover and aid in directing gas-into the closure caps.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,889,629 Bohmer et al. Nov. 29, 1932 2,262,685 Kronquest Nov. 1 1, 1941 2,361,366 vBell a Oct.` 31, v.1,944 '2,763,107 A1, Day-et \al., Sept.`18,"1956 

